Akasha: A Foundational Concept.
Before I go further writing new posts and exposing ideas, I would like to bring the term Akasha to the reader’s awareness. This will facilitate not having to include this information within future posts which will help keep focus on the subject matter. I guess that you could call this an addendum to my two previous posts: “Reconnecting with the Divine Masculine” and “Brahman: Beyond the Trinities of Purusha and Prakriti.” So we will explore the meaning of Akasha and Akasha in spiritual traditions.
Akasha: More Than a New Age Term.
Though it has become popular in New Age circles, the meaning of Akasha is far more than a modern concept. It is a universal term embedded in the world’s spiritual traditions, philosophies, and even scientific ideas about the nature of existence.
Terms such as Ether, Prana, Chi (Qi), Life Force, Vital Energy, Spiritus, Mana, Pneuma and Ruach, in different cultures and religions all point to the same fundamental reality: an energy that pervades all of creation, connecting all life and the cosmos itself.
Akasha in Spiritual Traditions.
Swami Vivekananda, revered as a sage of our time, spoke of Akasha as one of the five basic elements, foundational to the structure of reality. He described it as the substratum of all matter — the essential essence upon which everything else rests.
Similarly, the sage Patanjali, in his Yoga Sutras, links Akasha with the concept of Shabda (sound). In classical Indian philosophy, Akasha is seen as the most subtle element, the medium through which sound — and thus creation itself — travels. It is the first element to emerge after pure consciousness. This sound is what everyone presently knows as the OM.
The great Edgar Cayce, a pioneering mystic and healer, famously described the Akashic Records, which is within Akasha, as a vibrational record of every soul’s journey, holding the imprint of every thought, emotion, action, and intention. This vibrational field acts as a universal memory, where the essence of every being and every moment is stored, continuously evolving as we journey through life.
Akasha and the Holy Spirit.
In the Christian tradition, the relationship between Akasha and the Holy Spirit is profound. We read, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” This Word, or Logos, can be linked with the Holy Spirit — the Divine Breath, the Living Force, that moves through Akasha, creating and bringing life into existence.
Akasha is the medium, the subtle womb, where the Holy Spirit/Divine Breath gives shape to the Word, or the creative vibration, which reverberates throughout all of creation.
The First Emanation and the Feminine Polarity
Akasha can be understood as a bridge between us and the Divine — a subtle field through which divine energy, wisdom, and the impulse of creation flow into form. It links the spiritual with the material, the infinite with the finite.
As referenced in earlier posts, and drawing from the Samkhya and Vedic traditions as symbolic maps, Akasha can be seen as the first emanation brought forth by Prakriti, the Feminine Polarity that underlies all manifestation. To initiate the unfolding of a multi-dimensional reality, Prakriti first expresses herself through the three gunas — Rajas, Sattva, and Tamas — the primordial vibrational qualities of nature.
These gunas are not just qualities but archetypal movements of the Universal Mind — the first differentiation in the field of consciousness. They arise as a creative reflection of Purusha, the Masculine Polarity or pure awareness, whose silent presence awakens the dance of manifestation.
In my understanding, these three gunas symbolically mirror the divine roles of Brahma (Rajas/creation), Vishnu(Sattva/preservation), and Shiva (Tamas/dissolution). They are not the deities themselves, but the energetic principles those deities represent within the fabric of reality.
From this triadic movement, Akasha emerges — the first subtle element, a field woven by the interplay of gunas. It is the descent of the Goddess into a form capable of holding space for all other elements to arise.
Hare Om Tat Sat